Danna Omari has been for a few years now. But it wasn’t until she started showing off two then-obscure techniques — buccal (a specialty inner-cheek💟 massage) and ꦚgua sha — that her popularity skyrocketed.
And when it comes to gua sha (pronounced gwa sah), Omari’s timing couldn’t have been better. About a year ago, the Long Island-based facialist put the $300, 60-minute treatment on the menu at her Midtown spa, Noy Skincare, which involves brushing the skin with a smooth rock. Recently, the flat stone, which is made from smoothed-out jade or rose quartz, has gone from a cult high-end instrument to an industry phenomenon, with versions sold everywhere from to . Chainlet facial spa Heyday, which has six locations across Manhattan, offers a $20 gua sha add-on which promises to smooth fine lines and wrinkles, just by brushing the mysterious rock against a client’s skin.
Omari is a full-fledged believer in the beautifying power 🌼of the simple stone.
“A gua sha [facial] works on the face’s connective tissue, the facial fascia, which helps lift and release the facial muscles,” says Omari, a 34-year-old mother of three who now boasts over 76,000 followers for her quiet, ASMR-like videos. “The routine, when done right, increases circulation, plumps the skin and removes blockages.”
It sounds too good to be true, but studies support the healing power of gua sha. It’s been found to be an effective treatment for and low back pain and, in Taiwan, there’s an ongoing clin🎐ical trial examining the benefits of gua sha for .
To learn how to use the tool on her skin care clients, Omari trained with a number of experts, including the contemporary forerunner of the ancient East Asian practice, Ping Zhang, who practices on Long Island. Omari says her resulting 12-step process effectively reduces puffiness, li🍬nes and wrinkles (although for long-lasting effects, she suggests multiple treatments).
She starts with the client sitting up, to gently drag the gua sha along the upper spine, and then moves it into the shoulders, neck and jawline using different pressures and motions: lighter on the neck and a little firmer around the spine. “In order to treat and lift the face, you have to treat and lift the neck first,” Omari says.
T🍌he massage continues up the face to the forehead and scalp and takes about 40 minutes. The꧅n, she’ll assess any specialty areas that need extra attention such as the eyes, cheeks and brow area.
“Around the eyes, you’re using feather-light strokes to move excess fluid, draining and increasing blood flow to the surface of the skin,” she says, which can help minimize the appearance of under-eye bags and dark circles.
She says that thanks to the newfound availability of commercial gua sha stones, those who are curious about it needn’t visit a fancy spa to try out the treatment. But buyer beware: “The quality of stone matters … It’s important to do your research and make sure [the stone] is authentic jade or rose quartz. There are a lot of fakes out there that are just dyed stones and not real.”
Her favorite tool is the Zhang-designed white jade stone ($175-$260): “On one side of this tool, there are seven grooves that mimic acupuncture needles,” which makes it special, she says. Since she started using it, she’s seen a real difference: “My pores are more refined, I have less pigmentation, and my face is less puffy.”
Here, tips from Instagram’s gua sha guru for using the stone on three different areas of the face.
Eyes
This technique moves excess fluid around and increases blood flow, which can help minimize eye bags, sagging eyelids and crow’s feet, Omari says. To start, she recommends that at-home practitioners “slowly move the tool outward from the outer corner of the eye, gliding it along the skin out to the temples.”
Mouth
“We hold a lot of tension in the mouth area,” Omari says. To help release it, she says to press the flat side of the stone against the face just outside the lip area and gently glide it outward to reduce the appearance of fine lines. When it comes to smoothing nasolabial folds, Omari says to turn the tool to the edge and retrace the area using a zig-zag motion: “It’s like erasing.”
Jawline
Lightly trace up the neck to bring energy to the face, Omari says. Then, press the jawbone with the curve of the stone and work outwards toward the ear. “This sculpts the chin and jawline and removes blockages that could lead to sagging jowls and puffiness in the cheeks,” she says.